Here's a new innovation on the marketing principle of proximity: this new Barack Obama ad about independence from foreign oil is coming soon to gas pumps all over Florida.

The ad, which blames Republican John McCain in part for the energy crisis, will broadcast on a network of television screens conveniently located on top of gas pumps in that state.

And in a further attempt to bring the message to consumers at the height of anxiety about high gas prices, the Obama campaign this week is launching a broader effort to put his energy plan into people's hands while they're still at the gas station.

Supporters will be handing out copies of Obama's "New Energy for America" plan this week to consumers in 24 states -- in theory, while they're in the process of paying the $4-a-gallon bill.

Presumably, anybody can put up an ad on the pumps, even though it's a little like airing plane crash stories on those flatscreens at the airport. But you have to wonder which station owners will be the first to realize that those energy independence pamphlets are partly talking about independence from, um, them.

Comments

What a joke. The Democrats are clearly the cause and Obama is trying to fool us.

91% of House REPUBLICANS have historically voted to INCREASE the production of American-made oil and gas.

86% of House DEMOCRATS have historically voted AGAINST increasing the production of American-made oil and gas. Speculation is part of it, but when one is awash in a product, it's hard for the speculators to drive the market so high for very long.

The Democrats have attacked us when we try to look for oil where we think it is.

The Democrats have attacked us when we try to drill where we know it is.

And the Democrats have attacked us when we try to refine what we have! (We even import refined gas now!)

This problem is CLEARLY the result of the Democrats being Socialists and always trying to hurt the economy so as to make us all "equal" - equally miserable.

How do you explain the fact that the Republicans have controlled Congress for 12 of the last 14 years? And the fact that for 6 of the last 8 the Republicans had control of both the legislative and the executive branches? How can you say with a straight face that any of this is the fault of the Democrats?

Alz - You say that the Democrats have attacked "us" when we try to look for oil where we "think" it is.
Who is us? Are you an oil company? Do you mean "us" as working Americans? Sounds pretty socialist to me.
How about this, I "think" oil is in your backyard. When can I start drilling?

I haven't heard Sen. McCain say we can drill our way back to $1/gallon?

Is producing-refining gasoline (neccesary for this greatest of all nations to provide it's Gross National Product's delivered throughout this country and around the globe) considered greed, selfishness and shortsighted-ness by the Republican party?

Does the Democrat party have some other available source of energy to transport America's good's and products within our country and around the world? Something that doesn't foul the environment and continue to pollute the air? Has the Democrat party been against oil refineries all these decades? Has the Democrat party been against coal burning power plants all these decades?

People like Sweet Old Bob must have had their heads in a deep hole for the last several decades to lay these claims of " fouling the environment with oil drilling at the start, and continuing the air pollution when it's built" at the feet of the Republican party. What a laugh there Bob! Drink up, your glass is half empty and you need your energy to keep this insanity up.

What is amazing this year is how many people have bought the fundamentally childish notion that, if you don’t the way things are going, the answer is to write a blank check for generic “change,” empowering someone chosen not on the basis of any track record but on the basis of his skill reading someone else's words from a teleprompter. Obama is a con man. Nothing more.

The price of gas will never be high enough for me to even consider handing the keys to the country over to Obama and his merry coalition of hard-left, socialist schemes. An Obama presidency and Pelosi congress would crush this nation.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am getting tired of the lies - Obama voted for all sorts of "goodies" for big oil interests and McCain voted against them. Let's look at the facts - Dems have always been for the environment and don't want anything happening here in their own backyard. At some point, we need to decide whether we want to pay to import everything or if we want to reduce costs, reduce our reliance on other countries, and supply our own energy. It is going to take a number of different solutions in order to create independence - we will need to drill in fields where we hold leases. expand our refinery capacity, find alternative ways, use natural gas, etc. And, we need to start now. It is the Democrats who left Congress last Friday and would not vote to lift the drilling ban. The Congress has not had a veto-proof majority for a long time and I blame both sides for being unwilling to compromise. As long as both sides think they are right and the other is wrong nothing will change. And, I blame to people who keep sending these people back to Washington. Start voting for other people - use your vote to express your displeasure with the way they are behaving. Here in Illinois, Durbin's seat is up for re-election and I will vote for his opponent. It's the only way to show them that they can't tell us one thing to get elected and then go to Washington and do as they please! Both Durbin and Obama have totally ignored voter's wishes here and Durbin should not be returned to Congress and Obama should not be elected President!

Does anyone ever pay attention to those advertisements at the gas pumps. I find them to be invisable. It is kind of like white noise. It is drowned out by watching the numbers climb on the dollar total. What a waste of the lemmings donations. He is really going all out for that FL vote. FL remember how he treated you during the primaries.

Alz, I generally agree with your position, but it's useful to point out that we import refined gas because there's a surplus of it in Europe right now due to the large use of diesel cars there. While refineries can control somewhat the proportions of gasoline, diesel, and other products from crude oil, unavoidably when you make diesel you make some gasoline, and the refinery streams are out of balance with the vehicle fleet requirements, so they sell their surplus here. It's probably cheaper for us to buy a product that is in surplus than it is for us to make the same product ourselves.

When will the first automobile powered by renewable energy arrive in the showroom? How about the first solar- or wind-powered locomotive? The first semi powered by water? (Now, I am not talking about anything powered by electricity that must be obtained from the grid. That power comes from coal or nuclear energy, which environmentalists tell me is bad.) Until you can tell me when these things will hit the market, will be as affordable and as reliable as the modes of transportation now powered by oil, I will continue to push for cheaper oil to power the economy.

My Aunt Fanny, even though the GOP controlled much of Confgress from 2001 to 2006, the Dumbocrats in the Senate kept FILIBLUSTERING the GOP energy plan, so nothing got done. If the Dumbocrats hadn't filiblustered the energy plan beginning in 2001, we'd be getting oil from ANWR TODAY!!!

Why can't I put a wind turbine in place of my antennae on top of my roof and provide power to my house? Why would we provide Detroit with tax incentives to develop a car which runs on ethanol that is already available in Brazil? What happened to good, old-fashioned American ingenuity? We need to get off all oil both foreign and domestic.

The reason we can't drill our way to independence from foreign oil is that we've already extracted most of the oil there is to be had from our lands and waters. Look up the EIA study on offshore drilling--the increase in production is only a few percent by 2030. Now, maybe we need that few percent increase, but any real solution to the energy crisis HAS to involve reducing our demand for oil, foreign or domestic.

Oil companies have the right to drill on how much of our public lands already? Yet they don't. So the magic formula to energy independence must be to sell off more of our coasts, and more of our wild places.

I need President Obama to mail me a tire pressure guage also, which is a key part of his energy plan.
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Actually, McCain has offered to help out with those, having admitted that after all, it's something that COULD work. So - he's got the free tire gauges if you want one. In the meantime, if you actually want government to do more than give you a free tire gauge, visit here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy for some real ideas.

Next thing you know, the Republicans will be sending everyone in America, a 5 cent token. We can take it to the nearest gas station and have our gas bill reduced by 5 cents !! That is what all their noise about drill, drill, drill, will get us for the next ten years, next to nothing !! Yet, they insist on making noise as though they are offering any thing, new or old and they aren't. That is the height of cynicism: Let's pretend like we are presenting a realistic solution and we know it is nothing but another gimmick. That is the Republican way, gimmicks and more gimmicks, year after year, administration after Republican administration !! That is all they can come up with, gimmicks!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

How do you explain the fact that the Republicans have controlled Congress for 12 of the last 14 years? And the fact that for 6 of the last 8 the Republicans had control of both the legislative and the executive branches? How can you say with a straight face that any of this is the fault of the Democrats?"

Easy, as I already said "86% of House DEMOCRATS have historically voted AGAINST increasing the production of American-made oil and gas."

face it, the Democrats have been royally scr*ing us for many years. We live in an oil based economy. Oil goes into making all sorts of things and moving everything and every body. By forcing us to pay dictators and other people who shouldn't get our trillions, the Democrats are forcing our standard of living down and hurting poor people the most.

This is a good example of how the Democrats work towards exactly the opposite of what they keep telling us and what is right. Don't vote for any Democrats.

John is right. We should have agreed to drilling long ago. President Bush tried to put it thru several times. Dems wouldn't let it thru. Some people only want to know about what they want to hear>http://soundpolitics.com/archives/011155.html

: His own 11:40 AM-You're faulting Bush (Republicans) for a fundamental difference in beliefs about Big Oil. We have opposite views on the evilness of it. We have opposite views on wanting to rely on our own oil at home....because of your sides views, no drilling will ever be acceptable and so any and everything is said to poo poo it, and the stories change daily as they look for just the right argument that can Poo Poo it. The only problem that is dire that they have is that WE THE PEOPLE want drilling here and now.

I recently was on a long empty highway and saw all these large white windmills had been installed. I found out that Bush had given incentives for people to invest in them. Some put all this money into them and got them going up only to find that they didn't have a source to connect the power to where it was needed so all that money was waisted. The case I saw was working great, but both these cases show how long it takes to get off the ground (Bush had this program up for some time) and how wrong things can go. In the meantime we need to drill and we need power plants. I don't expect to hear anything positive out of Dems on either one, so I just block their BS out. Just like they try and do with good sense> http://soundpolitics.com/archives/011155.html

Whatever oil is recovered by the new offshore platforms would go on the WORLD MARKET. (Unless y'all are suggestin' we do something as "Socialist" as nationalizing the oilfields!) The couple hundred million barrels a day that may be produced are just a spit in the global ocean of demand. It also wouldn't put us in a position of busting the OPEC cartel, either. Indeed, the price may drop a few cents. But the cost to our environment and our coastlines... Hmm... I'm going to have to give that some real thought as to whether it's worth it or not.

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